Downpours and Dreams
by ShivaVixen
Summary: Companion fic to Soapsuds and Stars, a one shot.


**Downpours and Dreams**

It was Raining. Hard. The human word Monsoon was almost acurrate for that night. The mech took a deep breath as a thought passed through his CPU. It wasn't what he had planned to do, but right then, the thought popped into his mind, and he acted.

BlackArachnia held the Allspark fragment in her hand, and Optimus had grabbed her. All she'd meant to do was stun him and escape. That was it. But when she connected, the fragment, which was clapsed between their hands, blazed to life.

It hurt to say the least, BlackArachnia screamed. Prowl picked up Sari as the rain got into his optics. He couldn't see what was happening. It was practically a monsoon, and Optimus was still trying to fight BlackArachnia.

BlackArachnia felt her organic systems twist iside her, as her body seemed to burn. "Optimus!!" She wasn't sure if she had said it outloud or someone else had, but she felt like she was being burned and melted. The rain felt like it was washing all the organic stuff away.

For a moment, she could barly see anything, then she saw him give a small smile.

"I hope you can forgive me someday." His words didn't sound right. She felt her tank purge, and when the world had stopped burning, spining and twisting, she was kneeling, and Optimus was laying on the ground near her, unmoving. The rain had stopped.

"Optimus!!" The human girl had escaped the dark colored mechs grip, and had run to the side of her guardian. But Bleackarachnia just stared at her hand. it wasn't the dark color it had been for so long, it looked more lika a pink color. She stared at her reflection in a puddle, she wasn't dark colored anymore, her armor was almost what it had been before she was infected by the organic material. Grant it, she seemed to had a slight red tinge all over, but it was her reflection. Blue optics, Autbot insignia, academy strips . . . She was back to normal. She ignored a dark colored puddle going down a street drain.

"Boss bot!" The cry made her look over at the group, more concerned about their fallen leader than her. She could escape without notice-

_And go where? The decepticons? THey never cared, Meagetron just wanted to use your hate to attack the elite guard! _

_But I can't go to the autobots, I betrayed them!_

_Optimus would vouch for you. He still loves you, despite what you've done._

_. . . _

_I won, didn't I? Elita-One._

"Optimus?" Still Shaky she tried to move. SHe was kinda surprised when the big guy, Bulkhead?, supported her. "Is he alright?"

"He'll be fine. If you two had been connected a little longer, you'd have drained his spark too." the red and white mech growled.

_I almost killed him . . ._

_Funny, wasn't that what you wanted to do? Now you feel guilty._

_Shut up!_

_Bit late. I'm Right._

"Hey, you okay?" THe yellow mech, Bumblebee, must've noticed her trip.

"No . . . I . . . Damnit, I said I didn't want his help!"

" . . . Maybe. You may not have wanted it, but you got his help." Ratchet stepped back as Bulkhead picked up Optimus. "I'll report to Ultra Magnus-"

"I'll make sure Sari gets home." THe ninja bot nodded. "Let's go, Bumblebee."

"Can I go with you?" Something compelled her to say that. "I can't . . . I can't go back to the decepticons."

"Bet the autobot insignia would make that hard." Bumbleebee transformed and let Sari in.

" . . . Stay close."

However Elita One had thought the meeting would go, being assigned to command Optimus's team while he was out of comission was not one of the scenarios. Nor was Sentinel Prime's fainting when she told her story.

"I don't get it." In the tempoary home of Optimus and his crew, Elita looked at Ratchet as he moved about the medbay, checking on Optimus.

"Don't you?" Ratchet dimly wondered why people came to him with questions on leading and how teams work. He sure wasn't a psychiatric bot. "We're a bridge repair crew. Bumblebee and Bulkhead were assigned here after some trouble in boot camp, Prowl got in trouble cause he wouldn't work with others, and was assigned to us, Me, I'm just an old bot with a couple servoes in a scrap heap somewhere, and Optimus was put in charge of us, cause of some trouble with Sentinel and Ultra Magnus." He stopped and held her optics. "All of us are bots that no one else wants, and we know it. We're the group no one wants to be assigned to. So no, this wasn't a real punishment like being locked up for life, but no one takes us seriously. To them, we're disgraces of the Autobots."

" . . . But Optimus beat Megatron . . ."

"It was a fluke of luck known as Starscream that probably weakened Megatron enough for us to deal with. Ultra Magnus won't give much time to Optimus, and Sentinel would give him even less, so we're almost always on our own. Yeah, Ultra Magnus gave us the task of finding the allspark fragments, but unless Megatron outright attacks us, he'll stay in the ship, So it's up to us." Ratchet scowled as a readout wasn't good enough for him. "And Optimus is still in stasis lock. All his systems are drained, even the firewalls around his spark have dropped."

"What about the organics key?" Elita watched as Ratchet stiffened. "Ratchet?"

"Sari isn't really an organic." Ratchet sighed. "She's what humans call an android, a very realistic, humanized robot." Elita's mouth dropped open. "It's why she's with us, even though her dad's back."

"Oh . . ." She blinked as he shoved Datapads into her face.

"Here, they're the files on the team, what's he doing here?" A car, blasting music and practically bouncing on its tires, rolled up and transformed.

"Hey, what's shaking?!" Jazz kept bouncing to the music.

"You are, Jazz." Bumblebee and Sari laughed as Prowl smirked at his own slight joke.

"Keep it down!!" A well aimed wrench hit the elite guard's helm. "There are injured here!"

"Sorry! But I have good news, Ultra Magnus wants at least one member of the elite guard with you guys, and I get to hang with you for a while!" Bumblebee and Sari cheered as Ratchet groaned. Elita just blinked her optics.

"Jazz, play with us!" Elita took the time to try and disapear to read the datapads.

"Try Optimus's quarters, less likely to be disturbed there." Elita jerked as Prowl moved past her. "He's not goning to need them for a bit." Then the Ninja bot was gone. Elita entered the room, and blinked at how spartan the place was. A few Datapads on a desk, a recharge berth . . . and a few pictures. One was the team with the earth girl, on what Elita assumed to be the girl's creation day, another was of the group, along with Jazz, spraying water at each other and having fun. The third was old and dirty from water damage, but it was a picture of him, with her and Sentinel. She glanced away, down at the Datapads in her hands. She started with Bumblebee.

His file was simple, included a psychiatric evaluation and personal history, normal stuff. She wasn't surprised that the psychatrist had labeld him as egotistical and reckless, but it didn't quite fit the fun loving bot she'd been watching for awhile.

Bulkhead's was surprising, who knew such a big and slow bot had actually tested well on Spacebridge science? Elita had tried the course and had barely passed. She could operate a spacebridge, but she couldn't make one.

Prowl was Ninja trained, but hadn't finished due to differences with the master he was studying under. His psychiatric eval. showed him to be a lone wolf, only looking out for his own intersts, which conflicted with the way he had taken charge of the group to get them home the other night.

Ratchet was a war veteran, which piqued her interest. Had seen battle and was a famed Warrior medic, but seemed to have a fall from grace after peace was declared. He was 'tempermental' and refused to completely retire, hence him being assigned to a repair crew.

She hesitated when she picked up Optimus's file, then proceeded to read it anyway. Most of it, she knew, but she found herself gripping the datapad a bit hard when she saw the stuff added after her disapearance.

"Optimus Prime is a poor leader who's carelessness and disregard of rules has ended the life of a teammate . . . The descision of the court is too put him in charge of a repair crew and hope that other leaders will be better- _Hopefully he will never be needed to lead_- What sort of descsion is that?! It was Sentinel's idea, not Optimus's!" Elita almost threw the datapad. Optimus may not have come back for her, but if Sentinel hadn't overturned Optimus' descion to not land, they wouldn't have been in the predicament in the first place. She threw the datapad in anger, then realized she'd thrown it at Ratchet, Prowl just behind him.

"Sorry . . ." She glanced down.

"Well, that explains why Sentinel likes to insult Optimus . . . He follows the courts ruling, and he got off scott free." Ratchet scowled a bit. "Don't worry, I've thrown worse things at bots."

"I thought you hated Optimus?"

" . . . Not anymore. It's hard to hate a mech like him." Which was the truth, she hadn't hated Optimus after she met him for the first time . . . it was hard to hate a guy who actually admitted he was wrong and actually was honestly trying. "I think I'll reserve my hate for Sentinel."

"Join the club." Ratchet picked up the datapad. "We've got a room cleared for you."

"That was quick."

"I started on it before you two arrived." Prowl gave a slight nod. Then he turned and walked away.

"How's Optimus?"

"The same. I have to manually jump start some systems, and get some energon in him, before I'll even think about using that Key."

"But if it's quicker-"

"The day we rely on that key for everything is the day the decepticons win, femme." Elita stayed quiet. Somehow the old bot was more formiable than Megatron. And he hadn't even tried to hit her."Young bots, always interested in shortcuts." Elita followed him to her room, then headed back to the main room. Jazz, Sari and Bumblebee were having a DDR contest. Bulkhead sat patiently watching them.

"What are you doing?"

"It's called DDR, lovely lady- Hey 'Bee, Sari's beating you!" Jazz was losing cause he kept listening to the songs playing.

"Hey, Doc bot, wanna try?"

"I wanna break something, I'll go find a decepticon to tangle with." Ratchet headed back to the medbay. "What in Primus's name are you doing Wreck-Gar?" Elita blinked as Ratchet talked to a rather . . . eccentric looking bot.

"Hey, 'Lita, wanna join us?" Jazz stopped playing to talk to her.

"Um . . ."

"C'mon! It's fun." Sari beat Bumblebee by a point. Jazz pulled her over to a robot sized pad. "We tried to get Bulkhead, but he wouldn't do it."

"May I remind you of my attempts to move steathily?" While Bumblebee teased Bulkhead, Jazz showed her how the game was played.

"Here, we'll do it on easy." 'Butterfly' started playing. And Elita, fairly stiffly, tried it.

"Hey, Loosen up a bit, have fun." Jazz insructed. Elita dimly nodded, and tried to loosen up. "You'll get it."

"I give up." Elita was surprised when Jazz and the others protested. "I'm still sore after yesterday."

"Alright." Elita moved to the couch, and watched the group interact, Prowl crouched on a table, watching the group in silence, until, mostly due to Sari's coaxing, he also agreed to join in.

On paper, the bots were incompatable and labeled useless, but in real life, she had never seen a team that close. They new each other so well, fears weaknesses, likes and dislikes . . . they were a family.

And they were slowly opening up to her, forgiving her her previous mistakes.

She could live with that.

It was another few days of her kinda filling in for Optimus until he onlined once more. And his smiling optics when she yelled at him for not telling her what the council had done to him made her rant fall short.

"Would it have made a difference?"

"How should I know? You didn't tell me!" Hands on her hips, she scowled at him. Then notcied his battle mask was still on. "Why haven't you retracted your battlemask?"

"He still can't move, you really drained his systems." Ratchet scowled. "I need to run a diagnostic on you real quick . . . should have done this earlier." Elita held still as Ratchet plugged her into the machine. "Uh-huh, that's intersting."

"What?"

"You downloaded all his codes and systems. Probably thanks to the allspark shard." Ratchet kept moving around. "Which means I can use your new systems to strengthen Optimus's."

"Sounds fine by me." Elita watched as Optimus went back to recharge, unable to stay awake for very long. The transfer was fairly quick, and she was dismissed to her quarters. It was another Day before Optimus was well enough to walk out of the Med Bay.

"Boss bot!" Bumblebee and Sari jumped up and tackled Optimus happy to see him.

"Welcome back ta the world of the livin'!" Jazz smiled. Elita watched from a cornor as Optimus got caught up with everyone else.

"What's wrong?" Elita once again jerked as Prowl appeared right next to her.

"Nothing . . . just . . ." Elita found whatever she was going to say was cut off by Prowl just patting her shoulder and joining Ratchet in scolding Optimus for getting in trouble. "I don't know what to say anymore."

"I don't think you have to say anything." Bulkhead was carrying something. "Just smile, it'll make Optimus happy." Elita blinked up at him. "Hey guys, look what I finally finished." As Elita watched the big guy revealed a painting of the bots in the room, all blacked out as the light of the painting came from in front of them. the lower half of the sky was a warm orange- a sunset picture, with streaks of white designating stars. It was beautiful, and Elita watched Bulkhead blush as she realized she said it outloud.

"_A Dream, is a wish, your heart makes, when you're fast asleep." _Jazz had found another song to play as the group admired the painting.

Optimus looked down at Elita, who looked back up at him. She offered a timid smile as she grabbed his hand.

_"No matter how your heart is aching, if you keep on believing, the dream that you wish, will come true."_

_**Well? How was it? This is the companion Fic to Soapsuds and Stars . . . It's really the best I could do. I don't own the song "A Dream is a Wish" that's Disney's cinderella.**_

**_Also, BlackArachnia's powers reminded me of Rogue from the X-men. And if rogue held on long enough, not only would the powers become permanent, but also she would kill that person. However, Optimus dies enough in all the universes, so I cut him some slack. The original G1 cartoon had Optimus and Elita sharing the same systems as they were both built by Alpha Trion using the same Schematics (See the episode War Dawn) so that was used. _**


End file.
